The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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When Google reported its earnings last week eMarketer ran an article that showed how Google along with Facebook accounted for over 72% of the increased ad spend in mobile in 2013, and that they were going to surpass that proportion in 2014.

In 2012, only 11% of Facebook’s net ad revenues worldwide came from mobile, and last year, that figure jumped to 45.1%. In 2014, eMarketer estimates that mobile will account for 63.4% of Facebook’s net digital ad revenues.

As the transformation to mobile-first companies continues at Facebook and Google more of the world is buying a smartphone. Business is only going to get better.

Growth in internet usage outside Europe and the USA is predominantly a mobile affair:

As of June 2014, China had 632 million internet users and 527 million mobile internet users, according to CNNIC. This means the country tacked on 14 million new internet users and 27 million new mobile internet users
in just six months.

apps (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

For its part Apple is now reaping more and more benefit from its huge installed base of iOS devices. iTunes revenues were up this quarter and Philip Elmer DeWitt made the important point a year ago that if broken out into a new company Apple's iTunes and services revenue would now make it into a Fortune top 250 list. Apple is minting money very well from iOS. This how Macrumors summarizes the position:

For the first fiscal nine months of the year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said iTunes software and services were the fastest growing part of Apple's business. iTunes billings grew 25 percent year over year to an all time quarterly high, largely due to the App Store. In the third quarter, iTunes generated $4.5 billion in revenue, an increase of 12 percent year over year.

It is difficult to escape the feeling that these three platforms - Facebook's social network, Google search and Apple's iPhone-iTunes, are unassailable. All three are well set to benefit from mobile in a global market that is set to double in size within three to five years and which each company is helping to shape.

Put driverless cars and Project Loon to one side, shelve speculation about the iWatch, these companies have perfected a corporate form that is highly adaptive and dominant. Every time their earnings announcement comes round there is considerable collective angst over what it might show but here is the medium term forecast. The only cloud on the horizon is our angst about disruption, a nebulous concept that is infecting a lot of management thinking. Platforms create strong utility positions for those that do them well - it's time to start believing the evidence.